In Raleigh, invasive plants are overrunning parks and backyards — but a growing number of homeowners and municipalities in North Carolina are turning to a natural solution that can chew through the problem: goats.
Goats eat everything, including native plants, and drop fertilizer as they graze, essentially resetting the land for growing season, according to Stephen Paul, the director of Goats on the Go Raleigh Durham – one of a few “Goatscapers” in the Triangle which provide targeted goat grazing.
“What they’re doing is they’re really helping the native species to compete,” he said.
In Nina Szlosberg-Landis’ backyard, Paul’s goats were the solution to her English ivy problem.
Szlosberg-Landis is an environmentalist. She purchased her Raleigh property decades ago. However, she didn’t realize she inherited a problem.
“It is like a fairy land back there, pretty much all year on the ground,” she said. “However, it’s covered with ivy. And it was growing up the trees, and so it was really taking over that whole backyard area.”
English ivy on forest floor on Nina Szlosberg-Landis’ property
Szlosberg-Landis said the previous owner’s son planted English ivy on the property as part of an erosion control project for Boy Scouts. English ivy is an extremely invasive plant that smothers trees and native plants by blocking sunlight and adding weight. As a vine, it spreads rapidly — climbing trees and crawling across forest floors.
“Of course, they had no idea that, you know, 30 years later, or 50 years later, it would be such a problem, but it became a problem,” she said.
Szlosberg-Landis said she made a promise to its previous owners to always take care of the land, and to keep that promise, she said she wouldn’t use chemicals inside her home or around her property.
But, with the ivy taking over, she said she noticed the health of her forest declining.
“So when I was confronted with the dilemma of what to do with this ivy, I had to look for some sort of natural remedy, and I knew about the goats, and so I thought, well, let’s just give it a shot,” Szlosberg-Landis said.
Goats: 1 Ivy: 0
The remedy arrived in a trailer – 20 of Paul’s goats cleared the ivy in just four days.
“They ate all the ivy, and they ate the Elaeagnus, which is also something that they apparently really love. So they stripped it all the way down to the ground. It looks great,” Szlosberg-Landis said.
Paul said he knew his team of “Champion Ivy Eaters” could complete this job.
Stephen Paul’s goats or as he calls them his “Champion Ivy Eaters”
“When it comes to English ivy, you can see there’s barely a morsel left. And that was the customer’s priority, and I knew I could make her happy on that one,” he said.
According to Paul, a goat’s natural habitat is dry, arid, mountainous regions – they have specialized hooves that allow them to handle steep, organic terrain. For invasive species control, they thrive off any broad-leaf plant, such as English ivy and Kudzu, and they’re able to reach areas that would be unsafe or difficult for people or machinery to get to.
“This property is not a simple property. It’s got varying terrains and the steep creek and ivy that crossed both sides of the creek,” said Paul. “So I think she [Szlosberg-Landis] was interested in how we’re going to tackle this ivy with all of the different slopes and surfaces. She must have heard about goats in English ivy, and thought this is a great use case for it.”
An Urban Problem
Invasive Species, like English ivy, Wisteria, and Kudzu, gained popularity in the 1950s and 1960s for aesthetic purposes. Homeowners bought and planted these species because of their beauty and resilience – often using them for erosion control and privacy.
Despite their beauty, invasive species are harmful to the environment, according to Sydney Merrell, assistant coordinator for the Raleigh Invasive Species Program.
“A lot of the time, they’re out competing native plants that are now rare or almost endangered,” she said. “And those plants, you know, they had an ecosystem function to maybe like native insects and birds that these invasive plants maybe don’t necessarily provide to these birds as well.”
The Raleigh Invasive Species Program was established in 2017. It’s meant to bring awareness to the threat of invasive species to North Carolina, according to Sean Gough, the director of the program.
“It’s about maintaining the biodiversity levels and the sort of ecological resilience that we currently have, which is challenging because you’re in an urban environment,” he said.
Merrell said Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh recently has gained attention because of the installation of Danish artist Thomas Dambo’s giant trolls in October. Additionally, it’s one of the city’s largest parks – and it’s crawling with invasives.
Troll Sculpture at Dix Park surrounded by trees with English ivy
“You’ll look down the slope, and most of the things that you see are invasive, which is pretty unfortunate,” she said.
Merrell said some of the vines can get so big and heavy that they actually strangle and pull the trees down. On top of that, they take away sunlight which prevents photosynthesis – weakening the plants and covering the forest floor.
“So that alters the forest environment pretty significantly once they’re introduced at a rate like we see in some of our parks,” she said. “They don’t know that they don’t necessarily belong here, so they would just keep growing, keep out competing the native plants.”
Sustainable Solution
Traditional management – including heavy machinery and herbicides – can be costly and toxic for the environment. That’s why the city of Raleigh is one municipality that’s turned to goats.
“Instead of us having them come in and dump gallons of herbicide on this, they can actually get a lot of the vegetation removed, and then we can come back and treat the sprouts, which is much easier,” Gough said.
Outside of the Triangle, Asheville, Chimney Rock, and Belmont have used goats as a form of invasive species control. Back in November, 15 goats tackled Kudzu near North Carolina State University’s practice football fields. It’s also gaining popularity as a way to mitigate wildfires in fire-vulnerable areas, such as California and some regions in Spain.
Goats on the Go Raleigh-Durham is one of more than 70 across the country – promising an eco-friendly way to clear vegetation and control invasives.
“The principle of goatscaping is you hit the vegetation as it’s putting out all of its energy to gather energy from the sun, and then that, in turn, stresses the plant and it needs to draw in its reserves to push out more leaf matter,” said Goats on the Go’s Stephen Paul.
He added he’s noticed more demand.
“More awareness is built, and more and more people become aware that goats are an option,” Gough said.
Gough with Raleigh’s invasive species program said the city has had two successful projects with Goats on the Go – and they’ve identified at least a dozen other areas where they could be effective.
“They’re incredibly cost efficient, when compared to some of the other conventional contractors that we work with. And also really positive. People love goats,” Gough said.
Gough said they try to get the job done in the most efficient and environmentally friendly way possible – the same philosophy Szlosberg-Landis follows as an environmentalist.
“For me, the benefit of having an environmentally positive way of dealing with it outweighs any, you know, potential increase in dollars and cents,” she said.
In order to maintain the progress from the goats, Szlosberg-Landis is already preparing to replant her forest floor with native species.
“We only have one planet, and it’s up to all of us to take care of it,” she said.